Amazon.com, Inc. announced on Wednesday that it reached an
agreement with Audible, Inc. to buy out the digital spoken word
business. The purchase will cost Amazon.com about $11.50 per
share, totaling roughly $300 million. This will include Audible’s
cash and short-term investments at closing.

Audible.com offers a massive range of audio books from top
authors, as well as a library of newspapers, magazines, television
and radio programs, and original programming. The website hosts
over 80,000 programs throughout the U.S., U.K., Germany and France.
Some of the major authors and sources include, Stephen King, Thomas
Friedman, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Charlie Rose.

"This deal brings together two pioneering companies that
share a long history of ceaseless focus on improving the customer
experience," said Donald Katz, founder and chief executive of
Audible.com. "We are very excited to be joining a company as
innovative as Amazon.com."

It looks like Amazon is focusing on the digital music market with
this purchase, and its recent move to take its DRM-free digital music
download service international.

The acquisition is expected to close by the second quarter of
2008.

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